Stronger Together chapter 99 (Patreon)

We all stared in shock at Henry. The magic I was feeling from him was  strong. Like senior council level strong. I didn't really have much in  the way of magical senses hence the magic eye spell but this guy was  pumping out enough power to warp the world around us slightly. Even a  normal person would be able to feel it provided they were inside the  range of whatever bubble of power he was manifesting. I let Aura shield  flicker into existence and felt Barb and Yang do the same behind me but  otherwise we didn't intervene, this was Harry's business and we would  follow his lead.

Harry's  expression was complicated. "I...I remember you. Henry Collingsworth.  You used to a friend of Justin's. You came over a few times but then you  just vanished. I looked into it a bit later. I heard you went warlock."  He looked sadly at the older man. "He threw you under the bus didn't  he? You've been hiding here because Justin sacrificed you so he could  keep operating the way he was?" The seething fury on Henry's face was  answer enough. "I'm sorry. I'm guessing you severed all ties to keep  away from the council's agents. But Justin is dead. I killed him when I  was sixteen. I barely avoided being enthralled. He got my girlfriend and  when I caught him we dueled and I caught him off guard."

Henry  looked derisive, but Harry continued. "I know that sounds crazy, but it  happened. I swear it on my power." The other man's face blanched in  shock. Swearing on your power was a huge deal, lying about something  like that caused a backlash that would strip you of part of your magic  in the best case. Harry continued sincerely. "I was placed under the  doom of damocles for years. The wardens hounded and harassed me and only  recently was it finally rescinded. I can't imagine being actively  hunted for all this time and surviving. So sorry that I know  words wont  be enough." He locked eyes with Henry, and they both froze.

I  was surprised Harry initiated a soul gaze with Lash in there, but then  again, maybe it wasn't so strange. Lash appeared to me because she'd  wanted to. She wasn't an active part of his soul so much as a parasite  so she could probably choose not to show up. Whatever the case the two  stared at each other for a few seconds then the gaze broke. Henry sighed  and his shoulder slumped, he just looked sad. Harry's eyes were full of  pain and he whispered aloud. "I'm so sorry. We can talk to Ebenezar,  he's senior council now. Without Justin running the wardens we can get  you a fair trial if you want."

Henry  just chuckled. "No need boy. I'm older than I look. My people down  here, they need me. Knowing that bastard got his just desserts is salve  enough for an old mans heart. I'm just tired now. Don't mention me to  anyone, if you'd do me that kindness. I want to spend my time down here,  taking care of the lost ones. Besides, why do you think we only use  candles and glow sticks. This is my home. It's warded quite heavily. I'm  safe down here as I have been for quite some time." He gave an  embarrassed chuckle "I feel like a child. I jumped to the worst  conclusion when I saw you, guess what happened still gets to me more  than i thought."

Harry  smiled wryly "Oh trust me I get that. Blasts from the past can really throw you off your game. We really are here to help though. Lots of  homeless are going missing we think. We suspect it to be Black Court and  we're trying to track down spots they may have taken people to try to  find some kind of pattern. Word on the street is they found some ancient  trinket and are going to use it for some real bad juju." Harry shared  most of what we knew but he left out the whole blot out the sun thing,  which seemed smart to me. No need to start a panic, even if Henry seemed  solid he was shaken from the Justin thing clearly, and hearing the sun  might go out would freak anyone out.

Henry  sighed and led us over to a spot near the alter where the pews weren't  beds to sit down. "I've heard some things, but sadly I always hear some  things. The homeless are an easy target for supernatural and sadly even  mortal predators, and it isn't unusual for them to be victimized. That  said, I have noticed a bit of an uptick recently. Nothing crazy enough  to arouse suspicion but more than one person seen in the same place vanishing at the same time. They're usually more spread out than that."  He gave Harry a list of locations and I could see Barb filing them away  mentally as well.

This  whole thing was...sad. Knowing that these people were so abandoned we had to find a rogue wizard in an underground church to learn slightly  more of them were vanishing because no one else noticed was  heartbreaking. Henry clearly cared deeply about the transient population  of the city and protected them here. I wondered what happened to him in  the books. He never showed up, maybe he died, or maybe he just left. Or maybe, since Harry was a warden, he stayed in hiding and was down here  the whole time.

Henry  continued listing places as Harry wrote, the list becoming alarmingly long, but the older man just looked resigned. I saw a few people like  Elliot look over at us suspiciously but seeing Henry talking to us  amicably now they seemed to calm down. They must have seen the anger  when he recognized Harry. These people really idolized him. He protected  and cared about them. Being stuck down here was a bit sad sure, but I  was glad the old man found something to do with his life. He seemed to  care about these people and they obviously cared about him.

Henry  looked a bit worried, clearly thinking over what we had said. He stood  there for a minute looking indecisive and then nodded to himself.  "Follow me, I might be able to help you out a bit." He turned and walked  past the altar to a door. He turned a brass knob like the first one we  saw on the double doors open by the front and pushed the solid wood, I  expected a creak or something but clearly this place was well cared for.  He stepped onto some stairs and then took us down under the church. He  mutter something and all the candles sparked to life lighting up the  space around us and bathing our shocked faces in light.

The  basement was...well, not a basement. It was more like a massive chamber  the size of a school gym. Columns held up the ceiling and the floors  were smooth rock, not concrete but literal stone smoothed to a polish.  Henry saw our faces and smirked "The wards are only one of my projects. I  dabble in healing and potions to help the others too. My main forte  however, is earth magic. I always had a gift for it. This lab took a year or two to make even with my skills, but I've learned quite a bit  creating it. Theres another chamber extending off the other end of the  church to expand the shelter much bigger than this one. That one took me years but it means many more lost souls can call this home."

Harry  was gaping in awe "This...hells bells Henry, earth magic on this scale  would make you one of the best on the world at the discipline. How the  hell have you not accidentally collapsed part of the city? I can't even  imagine the amount of time and power this took, earth magic isn't  exactly speedy. This is a work of art." His voice was filled with a  level of awe I'd never heard from him, and honestly I got it.  Destructive magic was all well and good and was certainly impressive but  this guy made a fucking fortress under an entire city and no one  noticed. There was impressive and then there was fucking legendary and  this was the latter.

Henry  chuckled at the praise. "As you said, not quickly. I've been down here  for years. As for the collapsing issue, one of my earliest residents was  a civil engineer. He was actually the one who had the idea for  Safehold, as we call it, after he saw this place he designed the whole  thing and we worked slowly to make it a reality. I'll take you over to  see it after we finish up down here if you like. Thank you for the  recognition though, I haven't had many visitors that can really  understand the scope of what I've done. You tell mundane people you can  do magic and they just hand wave all the effort."

A  snort of agreement was Harry's immediate response "Tell me about it.  That's the problem practicing humanity's favorite deus ex machina. No  one understands how much effort it takes. You rush a miracle worker you  get lousy miracles. As amazing as this is you said you had something  that could help with tracking down the missing homeless and the  vampires? We're really worried about what they might do if we catch them  too late, we've gotten word they might be kidnapping and holding  children for whatever ritual they're going to do."

Henry's  pride and sense of smugness vanished, replaced by a steely gaze. "Of  course, apologies my friends. I got a bit distracted. The reason I  brought you down here is partly related to this place though. One of the  ways I was able to increase my skill with earth magic so much and was  able to accomplish my great project was that I sought aid from the earth  itself. Earth elementals live everywhere there is ground if you know  how to look. Sadly the elementals in this city are a bit more sickly and  prone to anger than ones in less polluted locations but I was able to  make friends with them after some time communing. If anyone can find a  large number of people being held by vampires it would be them."

My  eyes lit up "That's perfect! Our information says they would most  likely be held underground, which makes sense, Black Court cant abide  daylight and are comfortable beneath the earth." Henry looked up in  slight surprise and I flushed in embarrassment "Ah sorry" I said holding  out a hand "I'm Cameron Beddows, This is Yang and Barbara. We're  Harry's apprentices." I had remembered to offer my normal hand, the  other covered by a sleeve and glove not unlike Harry would use if we  didn't prevent his burns. Which we would of course.

Henry  smiled and took my hand showing off a firm grip and callused hands  clearly used to hard work. "Well, it speaks well of him that he's  training such caring young people. To put yourselves in danger for  strangers is no easy thing. I welcome you to my humble home." He  released my grip, the smile back on his face looking just somehow right  there. He had plenty of smile lines to prove this was how he looked most  of the time. He turned back to the lab gesturing us to follow "I have a  circle here to commune with one of the more intelligent elementals I'm  in touch with. She helps me manage the others mostly and is one of my  dearest friends. I'd be happy to introduce you."

Harry  looked intrigued. "I was wondering about that, many elementals are  too...primal, to communicate with humans. Not to mention much like earth  magic earth elementals tend to be a bit slow to interact. The earth  does things on a different time scale. I know that the more intelligent  of them can somewhat compensate though, I'm surprised you were able to  find such a powerful earth elemental in a city like Chicago." Henry just  gave an enigmatic smile as he led us to the back of the lab, I was  pretty sure we were about to see something amazing.